Chapter 6.- No more secrets.
Chihiro tried to pull her daughter to her, but she couldn't. She stayed with her daughter's bronze chain in her hand.
"Chiharu!" both Chihiro and Haku yelled at the same time.
Both of them ran to the railing of the bridge.
Yubaba's spell had provoked that Chiharu fell down.
It was as if everything was going in slow motion:
Yubaba laughed evilly, sure she had won this time.
While Haku tried to use some kind of spell to save the girl but couldn't think of any fast enough.
And Chihiro just stood there praying.
And suddenly, when Chiharu was about to hit the water surface, it started moving. A whirl formed, and what looked like a pair of water arms sprung from the surface and embraced Chiharu.
Yubaba stopped laughing, and looked quite afraid again.
Haku was shocked. What was going on? How could this happen? This was certainly not a human thing.
But he turned to see Chihiro, he noticed her smiling calmly, as if she already knew something like this would happen.
And just then he noticed, a strong spiritual presence…Coming from Chiharu! It wasn't the weak presence he had felt the night before, but a full strong, spiritual presence, full essence.
Chiharu was returned to the bridge calmly.
Chihiro hugged her, smiling.
"You see Yubaba?" Chihiro asked firmly. "There's nothing you can do against us. You can't win."
"I should have killed you when I had the chance!" Yubaba yelled. "When Haku left to help my sister." She turned to point to Chiharu. "Before that stupid brat was born!"
"But you didn't." Chihiro said. "And now it is too late for that. What you feared the most has come true. The Eternal power has an owner, and it isn't you!"
"I curse you Sen, Chihiro, you'll never be able to be happy." Yubaba said, mad. "Humans and Spirits will never be happy together, because humans are mortals."
"I never asked for immortality." Chihiro said calmly. "You're wrong about that. But you gave it to me anyway."
Now Yubaba was the one confused.
"By living, and working here, I learned to survive with my spirit, with my essence, and not what I have physically." Chihiro explained. "And because of that, my spirit will never die. Neither will my daughter's."
"But anyway, you can live thousands of years, but you'll never live happy." Yubaba insisted. "That is my curse."
"Curses just come true if you believe in them. And I don't." Chihiro said. "Haven't you understood it yet? That's why you couldn't harm me eleven years ago, because my happiness made me immune to your witchcraft. No matter how much you tried, nothing worked."
"But finally I weakened you enough to make you leave, freely." Yubaba insisted.
"Yes." Chihiro accepted. "But I didn't leave alone. By that time I already had company. And in the bottom of your mind, you already knew that one day I would come back. Both of us would."
Both…Company…Back… Those words repeated themselves in Haku's and Chiharu's minds again and again. And suddenly, everything clicked in.
They both turned to look at each other. Green eyes, as identical as if seen in a mirror. If so, you would never know which is the reflection of which.
'Could it be possible?' They both thought at the same time.
Yubaba was as mad as she hadn't been in centuries, mainly because she knew Chihiro was right. A human, a mere human had won her, without even trying!
Yubaba fumed and disappeared, probably to distract herself counting her money…again.
Chihiro turned to look at her daughter, and noticed her looking intently at Haku's eyes, as if trying to discover the answers of all the secrets in the world.
'It's time for them to know.' An inner voice told her.
"I know." Chihiro murmured to herself. "Chiharu, Haku, there's something you need to know."
They both turned to look at her.
"Chiharu," Chihiro started. "You remember that fairy tale I told you. About Princess Sen and Prince Haku?"
Chiharu nodded.
"Well." Chihiro said. "It is not just a fairy tale. It is real. There were no princesses or princes, but they weren't needed either."
"What do you mean mom?" Chiharu asked, although she already had a pretty good idea of what her mother was talking about.
"My name is Chihiro, but here, I'm known as Sen." Chihiro explained. "I am that Sen in the story."
"You mean…" Chiharu started, wide-eyed.
"Yes." Chihiro said. "I came here when I was ten, met Haku, and Rin and Kamaji, and had to work to survive. I met also Yubaba and became the first human to get free of a contract. When I was seventeen I returned, I was in love with Haku. We lived together for near six months, when he had to leave suddenly, and Yubaba convinced me that he didn't really love me. So I left."
"But my love was true, it still is." Haku said stepping forward.
"I know, I think I always knew it." Chihiro said. "But in the bottom of my heart I wanted to have my own fairy tale. To leave, and have my blue prince following me." She sighed. "But he never did."
"Why is Yubaba so afraid of your daughter?" Haku asked.
"You noticed what happened when she was about to get killed." Chihiro said. "And I know you can feel her aura."
"You mean…" Haku started, not fully believing it.
"Yes." Chihiro said. "She's a half-spirit."
"That's impossible, you left." Haku said.
"It is not impossible." Chihiro said. "She is ten years old, she was born eight months after I left."
"Then why did you leave?" he asked.
"I already told you." Chiharu murmured. "I was weak. I had just found out I was pregnant and felt unsure of how to tell you. Then you left, and Yubaba took advantage of my confused mind."
"You married." Haku said.
"Yukio Materu was a childhood friend." Chihiro said. "He told me he loved me. But I rejected him. When I came back he told me my parents were dead, they died in an accident, shortly after I left. I told him I was pregnant and he offered to marry me, give my baby his surname." She sighed. "He always knew I didn't love him, and never complained. He just wanted to help me. He died two years ago in an accident."
"I know." Haku said. "Chiharu told me. She said you were rescued, and she survived by a miracle."
"It wasn't a miracle." Chihiro denied. "She is half-a-water-spirit, she has always been. That's how she survived."
"How come her presence changed so much?"
"The chains." She took both chains. "Yubaba gave them to me when I signed the contract, they were to keep everything related to this world hidden, including powers and auras."
"What contract?"
"When she convinced me to leave, she had me signed a contract: it said that I would leave and never come back, and in exchange she would leave me and my family live our own lives in peace. The contract canceled in the moment she tried to kill my daughter."
Chiharu was shocked. She had stayed silent all the time, just listening. She finally knew who was her real father. She had always suspected there were secrets in her family, after all, she had her mother's hair, but her eyes…there was no one in the family with that color of eyes. Besides, she had always felt like somehow, out of place.
'That's why I felt so good in this world.' Chiharu thought. 'Like if I had been here before.'
"It's already morning." Chihiro said. "The river must be gone by now, and we must go back. Chiharu."
Chiharu nodded and immediately followed her mother in silence, back to the river.
"Chihiro!" Haku called.
Chihiro stopped, but didn't turn. "I can't look back Haku, you know it. You told me." She said, and walked again.
Chiharu looked at her mother in silence.
"I still love you!" Haku yelled.
Chihiro sniffed, but continue going.
"This isn't a fairy tale, we won't live happily ever after." Chihiro whispered as she entered the red tunnel.
Haku just stayed there, in silence, without knowing what to do. Catching a last view of Chihiro entering the red tunnel, while the faint glow of a lone tear fell to the grass.
"Is this all?" Haku asked aloud. "Can't we have a happy ending?"
"If you don't go after her you'll never know." Rin spoke from behind him.
Haku didn't answer her. He had just too many things in mind.
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